Residents in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood have sought historic landmark status for a local mortuary chapel that’s slated for demolition. 

Now someone might buy it to save it from being razed and redeveloped. 

Several people have made are or are making “serious offers” on the Olinger Moore Howard Chapel mortuary at 4345 W. 46th Ave., Tom Simmons told a Denver City Council committee Tuesday morning. 

Simmons is one of three residents who applied for the historic designation against the wishes of the building’s owner, Howard Mortuaries & Cemeteries Corp. He’s also with the Historic Berkeley Regis neighborhood group.

Residents are working with the owner and developer to pause the city’s historic preservation process and come up with a plan to buy the parcel and redevelop or reuse the acre or so of parking space around the building, he said. 

City Council members appeared optimistic about the proposed compromise, which comes in the wake of the controversy over Tom’s Diner. 

“This application can actually be an example of how this process can move forward,” Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval said during the meeting of the Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. “I think I can speak for everyone sitting here: Nobody wants to vote on an owner-opposed designation. It’s really divisive to the community.” 

The committee voted to advance the proposed landmark designation for the mortuary chapel, with the hope that the developer, owner and residents can agree to a hiatus to make a deal before the designation heads to the full council for a public hearing later this month. 

“We’ve been meeting with the neighborhood group to identify some ways forward,” said developer Carl Koelbel of Koelbel Urban Homes. “There is a proposal that we’ve put forward that we think offers some pretty major concessions on our side that would allow for a pause, and for neighborhood groups or other potential users for the building to come forward if they can meet the economic price.” 

Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission has recommended that the council approve the designation.

The mortuary chapel, which opened as Denver’s suburbs blossomed after World War II, has become a “focal point” of the neighborhood, said City Planner Kara Hahn. Its exterior boasts of architectural features rare to the area, including Gotchic and Tudor arches, a stained glass rose window and terracotta ornamentation.

While owner-opposed historic designations seldom come before the council, city officials are grappling with how to handle them since the heated controversy over Tom’s Diner.  

When news surfaced that Tom Messina wanted to sell his 52-year-old diner on East Colfax Avenue to a developer, a group sought historic preservation status for the establishment.

The residents later withdrew that request, saying in a letter to the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission that they instead intended to work with Messina and the property owner to “find alternative solutions” for the site.

A city task force has proposed amendments to Denver’s landmark preservation ordinance that would allow more time for those involved to explore other options in such cases before the full council must decide on whether to OK an owner-opposed designation.  

The task force also proposed adding a category of “culture” to the criteria considered when designating landmarks, to encourage residents to seek more landmark designations in racially and economically diverse neighborhoods.

Councilwoman Kendra Black is seeking support from her colleagues to add an amendment that would require a super-majority of the council, 10 of 13 votes, to approve a historic designation when the property owner disagrees. 

But the committee voted 4-2, with Black and Councilman Christoper Herndon opposed, to advance the task force’s proposed changes to the full council without adding the amendment she suggested. 

The council can still add Black’s recommendation, though, when it considers the task force’s proposals this fall or weighs changes to the ordinance once those amendments have passed.

Black said Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore also supports the super-majority requirement to pass an owner-opposed designation. 

But other council members, including Robin Kniech and Sandoval, have said they don’t support the idea because it was not part of the consensus reached by the task force, which drafted its amendments over about 18 months. 

“I have to support the work of the task force,” Sandoval told her colleagues.